This year, the Science department at Jesuit High School Sacramento is undergoing changes.

One of the big changes is welcoming two new teachers to the department: Ms. Nicole Thom and Mr. Bryan Heng.

Ms. Thom, who formerly taught at Victory Christian, has taught for Jesuit during the summer in previous years. 

“I’ve been one of the Jesuit summer school chemistry teachers for two years, and I really enjoyed it, and then when Jesuit had an opening, I was like, cool I’ll take it,” Ms. Thom said.

Mr. Heng, after teaching at Bellerman College Preparatory, has felt a warm welcome during his transition into his new role.

“The first couple weeks have been a blur, but I’ve felt welcomed by the community at Jesuit High School and I’m settling into my roles as a teacher and a coach,” Mr. Heng said.

Science Department Chair Ms. Emily Weinberger has expressed her gratitude for the two teachers, who have quickly clicked with the rest of the department. 

“It’s been really nice to have these two new teachers come in who are really willing to collaborate with us,” Ms. Weinberger said. “We want [the student] experience to be the same no matter what teacher [they] have, and those two coming in have really shown us even just in the first couple of weeks that they’re willing to be a team player.”

The other change in the department is a curricular one. The department is in the process of aligning to meet the Next Generation Science Standards. These standards attempt to move away from memorization and traditional classroom experiences towards deeper analysis and thoughtful understanding in each science class.

“[The Next Generation Science Standards are] really this idea of taking things like engineering design practices and incorporating them into a biology or a chemistry class,” Ms. Weinberger said. “And so we’re really focusing as a team in trying to better align our curriculum while we’re teaching you to those standards.”

Ultimately, the science department hopes to inspire students to see science as exciting and relevant for the future. 

“We as a department, we as science teachers, want [students] to love science,” Ms. Weinberger said. “We continue to be really excited about teaching science and about getting [students] excited about science and realizing how practical it is in [the] everyday world.”